2017 NBA Draft: How Markelle Fultz would impact every lottery team
By Max Holm
Phoenix Suns – 19.9% Chance of Winning Lottery
You can sign me up immediately for a Devin Booker-Fultz backcourt for the next 10 years right now. Fultz would allow Booker to stay at shooting guard for the Phoenix Suns and take over lead guard duty, where he’s best suited.
That being said, Eric Bledsoe isn’t an unrestricted free agent until 2019 and Tyler Ulis showed great promise when given a chance. So if Phoenix wins the lottery and drafts Fultz, they probably have to commit to trading Bledsoe. He’s on a good deal and won’t be 28 until December, so some NBA teams may be willing to overlook injuries and make a move.
That would leave the Suns with a core of Fultz, Booker, Ulis (?), Dragan Bender, Marquese Chriss, T.J. Warren and maybe some prospects and picks for Bledsoe. That’s a much better set up than what they had for the 2016-17 season.
Phoenix would likely be a bottom-5 team in the league again, but the foundation of Fultz and Booker would likely yield future playoff appearances. They’d have the faces of their franchise set and spend a year developing. With a nasty potential top-three of DeAndre Ayton, Michael Porter Jr., and Luka Doncic in 2018, it wouldn’t be so bad if Phoenix was awful again next year. It also wouldn’t be so bad to have Fultz either.